The following background information will be helpful in understanding the field of telecommunications as it relates to the present invention.
1. Acronyms
The written description herein may contain acronyms that refer to various telecommunications services, components and techniques, as well as features relating to the present invention. Although some of these acronyms are known, use of these acronyms is not strictly standardized in the art. Accordingly, for purposes of the written description herein, the acronyms are defined as follows:
Access Service Request (ASR)
Call Detail Record (CDR)
Central Exchange Service (Centrex)
Carrier Identification Code (CIC)
Competitive Local Exchange Carrier (CLEC)
Generic Access Profile (GAP)
Grade of Service (GOS)
Graphical User Interface (GUI)
Incumbent Local Exchange Carrier (ILEC)
Interexchange Carrier (IXC)
Internet Service Provider (ISP)
Local Exchange (NXX)
Local Exchange Routing Guide (LERG)
Local Routing Number (LRN)
Numbering Plan Area (NPA)
Plain Old Telephone Service (POTS)
Point of Interface (POI)
Private Branch Exchange (PBX)
Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN)
Release (REL)
Release Complete (RLC)
Service Control Point (SCP)
Service Switching Point (SSP)
Signaling System 7 (SS7)
Signaling Transfer Point (STP)
Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol (TCP/IP)
Trunk Circuit Identification Code (TCIC)
Trunk Integrated Records Keeping System (TIRKS)
Total Network Data System (TNDS)
2. Background Information
In its most basic sense, a telephone call is placed from an origination point (call origin) and is connected to a destination point (call destination). The origination point will be associated with an originating end office and the destination point will be associated with a destination or terminating end office. A telecommunications network is utilized to effectuate a connection between the end offices, and ultimately between the origination and destination points. An important component of this network is the public switched telephone network (PSTN). The PSTN generally consists of a series of switches capable of logically routing calls through the telecommunications network based, in part, on information relating to the call origin and the call destination.
The PSTN typically employs two types of switches within the network: (1) Class 5 switches (also known as an end office switch, telephone company end office switch, central office switch, Class 5 office switch, or a service switching point (SSP)), and (2) Class 4 switches, also known as a tandem switch, which is an intermediate network switch. These switches are controlled by associated signaling transfer points (STPs) and service control points (SCPs), which provide instruction on call routing, as well as a variety of network implemented call services.
A telephone company end office (or central office) connects a network customers' telephone system to the PSTN via a Class 5 office switch. The network customers' telephone system may be a business telephone system, such as a Centrex or private branch exchange (PBX) system, or it may be a plain old telephone service (POTS) system, which is the telephone system utilized by most residential customers. Other customers may be entire networks, such as Internet service providers (ISP) and the like. The tandem switches are intermediate switches, incorporated in routing between the originating end office and the terminating end office. Communication lines, or trunks, are interconnected by one or more switches within the PSTN. A group of similar trunks that connect the same geographic locations are referred to as trunk groups. Depending on the volume of traffic, several trunk groups may simultaneously service two particular points in the PSTN.
Trunk groups are designed and implemented based on analysis of telecommunications traffic. Traffic associated with many trunk groups has significantly increased over the last several years due primarily to population growth in certain geographic regions. Trunk planners and network design engineers attempt to identify communications paths among switches that carry an especially high amount of traffic or load from point to point. Switches carrying especially high loads are connected with direct trunk groups, rather than trunk groups that may be routed indirectly between two geographic locations, to help alleviate traffic concerns. However, this is not always a viable and economical option. PSTN traffic continues to increase, due not only to population (network user) growth, but also due to the increasing number of interconnecting carriers utilizing the network. Such carriers include competitive local exchange carriers (CLECs), interexchange carriers (IXCs), wireless carriers, and independent carriers. These carriers also bring new traffic to the network and most depend largely on tandem switches as primary hubs. The increased traffic loads and carriers have spurred the addition of tandem switches and associated trunk groups without resort to analysis of traffic loads and routing. As a result, many times tandem switches and trunk groups are added to relieve overburdened resources, while other existing tandem switches and trunk groups are not being used to their fullest capacity. This misuse of resources is due to the limited ability to accurately quantify and analyze the actual traffic loads at each tandem switch. And because most of the costs associated with network and switch expansion falls on the Incumbent Local Exchange Carrier (ILEC) (sometimes simply referred to as the Local Exchange Carrier (LEC)), the LECs typically pass these costs to other carriers in one form or another and may include increased charges associated with use of a particular LECs tandem switch.
The dynamic nature of network traffic, ownership of infrastructure, and government regulation, often creates opportunities for solutions to problems associated with traffic between end offices. Such opportunities for solutions include avoidance of associated expenses with particular tandem switches and off-load of traffic from exhausted tandem switches to increase traffic efficiency, i.e., purposeful or managed routing of call traffic via tandem switches. Many groups of commonly-situated members, particularly CLECs and wireless carriers, could benefit from such solutions to increase profit margins. With such a market defined, these solutions can often give birth to a new business model.
The present invention provides, among other things, business models, methods, software, and associated systems for quantifying, managing, directing, auditing, and analyzing the actual traffic loads of tandem switches and associated numbers and codes for a defined group. Among other things, this information can be used to minimize costs associated with tandem traffic for the defined group—made up of subscribers or members—by purposely routing subscriber traffic flow through switches owned by a subscriber or a third-party tandem manager as opposed to switches owned by a particular LEC or non-subscriber entity.
Other aspects of the present invention will become apparent and be more fully understood from the drawings, descriptions, and claims set forth herein.